Testimony Completed In Lawsuit Challenging Rock Island Incorporation

POTEAU — As a non-jury trial regarding the existence of Rock Island opened Thursday, LeFlore County District Judge Jon Sullivan reminded both sides he'd already dismissed all challenges except a three-mile boundary dispute.

POTEAU — As a non-jury trial regarding the existence of Rock Island opened Thursday, LeFlore County District Judge Jon Sullivan reminded both sides he’d already dismissed all challenges except a three-mile boundary dispute.

In September 2011, Rock Island resident and businessman Dennis Morris filed a lawsuit challenging the town’s incorporation. He asked the court to decide whether the 770-population rural town was legally incorporated, and he contested the town’s boundaries because the town’s northern border is next to Pocola’s southern border. With few exceptions, Oklahoma law establishes a minimum distance of three miles between incorporated municipalities’ limits, Morris contends.

Sullivan did not rule in the case. He gave attorneys 20 days to research case law regarding incorporated municipality boundary disputes, cautioning them that there are none in the state, so they must look outside Oklahoma for those findings of fact and conclusions of law. The judge urged them to include opinions of what historically describes a defined community of people, and file that information with their closing statements.

Only a public official such as the attorney general can challenge an incorporation because municipalities are public in nature, Sullivan said.

In a Nov. 16, 2012, letter to Paul Tankersley of Cameron, who lives near the town limits and has been working with Morris, the state Attorney General’s Office declined to challenge Rock Island’s existence. The letter by First Assistant Attorney General Tom Bates refers to documentation filed at the Oklahoma Secretary of State’s Office and states, “We believe the town legally exists and its existence cannot be challenged.”

On Thursday, Morris testified that he’s been lived in Rock Island since July 19, 1952, and he agreed that he was involved in the 1989 move to incorporate the town.

The group sought incorporation then, he testified, to keep Pocola from extending itself farther south into the rural Rock Island community.

Morris also testified he was appointed as town trustee and his wife was appointed as town clerk at an organizational meeting. He agreed he favored the town’s boundaries then, and in the 22 years since, he did not propose changing the borders.

Robison testified that the boundaries are unchanged since being set in 1989.

Asked why he raised the issue now, Morris said his intent was to preserve the rural community. Morris said he wants to “either abolish it, go back to the original town plat, or let the people who want to be deannexed out.”

Morris testified that he doesn’t think Rock Island residents would suffer if the town was abolished, and they no longer had a police department, access to Federal Emergency Management Agency aid in a disaster or lost their town hall/community building.

Kelly testified that she was present for the 1989 incorporation vote during which residents within the proposed boundaries voted 82-1 for incorporation. She said that during her lifetime the town’s limits have always been considered to be what they are now.

She agreed with Morris’ attorney Desmond Sides that the town once had a school and a post office. When he suggested the town had died out, Kelly countered that it had “slowed down some.”

When residents decided to incorporate, Kelly said, “at that time we didn’t lock our doors. Now my door is locked even when I’m home. We’ve had some changes.”

Robison agreed with Sides that at the time of the incorporation vote Rock Island did not provide its residents any services.

Under cross-examination by Bovos, Robison said the town has since established a police department; appointed an emergency coordinator so that it has FEMA recognition and residents can buy federal flood insurance; has a town hall that doubles as community center; has a senior nutrition program and a municipal court.

Robison said town officials must verify the boundaries annually with the U.S. Census Bureau; the Oklahoma Department of Transportation recognizes the town boundaries for ODOT’s highway maintenance work; the state Tax Commission collects a sales tax, fuel and other taxes for Rock Island and remits those revenues to the town; and Rock Island has a mutual aid agreement in place with Pocola. Police officers from the towns back up one another, and Rock Island uses Pocola’s dispatcher service, Robison said.

Limbocker testified that Pocola maintains a map showing the boundaries between the two towns so that officers know what jurisdiction they are in. He also agreed that Rock Island’s boundary lies within three miles of Pocola.

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